When you last joined us we were checking into a hotel Saturday evening after mold spores had likely been spread through the house.

We waited to hear from the complex manager until she returned to work Monday morning. In the meantime I had written her a detailed email explaining the situation and how I needed it to be handled before we would return home.

Monday morning she informed me that she was working with the maintenance staff and everything would be taken care of properly.

Tuesday morning she said that a company would be coming out to do testing and she would let us know the results.

Wednesday morning she said the company wasn’t able to come out the day before but they would be out that morning and they would rush the lab tests to get them by the afternoon. In the evening she said she still hadn’t heard back from them.

Thursday morning she said the results were back and it was not safe to return. NO KIDDING!

So, after being out for five days we were told what I knew five days earlier! Wonderful! So nice to know. Now what are you going to do about it?! Well, I was told they would have someone certified to handle the clean up come out as quickly as possible.

Friday morning, that’s today, I was told that someone would come out by 3pm to start work. How long they will take? No estimate yet. It’s my understanding though that it should take a day or so to get everything cleaned up. So I can only hope we’ll be back in by Sunday. And, if not, I am going to FLIP OUT!

Now that you’ve read the moldy portions of our story, I’ll give you all the exciting details of our hotel life when our saga continues…

So, I left off with us waiting for the maintenance staff to come by in the morning to remove the moldy drywall and carpet. We expected them at 9am. We waited. And waited. At 11am we called the office to see where they were. Someone came right over. And then things got annoying. The maintenance guy came in, said he was going to check to see if the wall behind the drywall was wet or moldy and needed to be replaced or just the drywall, then he would remove all the drywall and spray a chemical that would stop the mold growth.

Okay that all sounded fine, except then he started working, without gloves, without a respirator, without tenting the area. He was just cutting out the drywall and pulling it down. And that’s when I got concerned. I’m no mold expert, but that just did not seem okay to me. So I called my step-father, the contractor certified in mold remediation. And he said what I was thinking, “that is not okay!” So what he was doing was spreading mold spores throughout the apartment! Lovely!

Not totally the guys fault. He’s done work for us before and he’s a super nice guy, but clearly not properly trained in handling mold. But regardless, he didn’t follow the correct procedure for removing mold. Which if you are interested is to tent the area and have a HEPA filter running to suck up spores, while wearing gloves and a respirator.

So, I went to the management office to talk with one of the leasing agents and the maintenance manager, had my step-dad explain what they should have done, and then let them know that we would not be returning to the apartment until it was tested for mold and I had a report in hand telling me it was safe to return. The leasing agent called the manager, who was not in that day, they told us they would reimburse us for hotel costs until everything was taken care of. What that meant exactly was not clear.

So I packed a suitcase and took us over to a hotel for what I hoped would only be a night or two.